HEAT OF MOONLIGHT.
M. Zantedeschi has proved, by a long series of experiments in the Botanic Gardens at Venice, Florence, and Padua, that, contrary to the general opinion, the diffused rays of moonlight have an influence upon the organs of plants, as the Sensitive Plant and the Desmodium gyrans. The influence was feeble compared with that of the sun; but the action is left beyond further question.
Melloni has proved that the rays of the Moon give out a slight degree of Heat (see Things not generally Known, p. 7); and Professor Piazzi Smyth, from a point of the Peak of Teneriffe 8840 feet above the sea-level, has found distinctly perceptible the heat radiated from the moon, which has been so often sought for in vain in a lower region.